My book is a memoir, and therefore my selections begin with oldies- ones reaching back to childhood, where I was riveted by the soundtrack of the musical Oklahoma, but particularly the one about poor Judd, with his fingernails newly cleaned: "His fingernails have never been so clean,"... which really motivated children to clean their nails.

Oklahoma: "Poor Jud Is Dead"

Flatt and Scruggs

Gerry Mulligan

Elvis Presley: "Hound Dog"

Who could recapture the excitement we felt, in college in Missouri, listening to the radio from Nashville, with the first Rock and Roll we'd heard, and especially the thrilling Elvis, who was also rumored to French-kiss his women fans waiting outside stage-doors, though we never had this opportunity.

Janis Joplin: "Me and Bobby McGee"

This brings back a particular visit to New Orleans, newly married, where we played this track dozens of times on the jukebox in a bar, in love with Joplin's brilliance but also trying to figure out what its portentous and mysterious lyrics were trying to tell us.

Tracy Nelson: "Down so Low," with "Mother Earth"

This is sort of Rock and Country both, a mellow and endearing combination from a fellow midwesterner turned, for a while in the sixties, San Franciscan, which is where I got interested in her.

J.S. Bach: The Goldberg Variations

Glenn Gould, of course. This fascinating work, and fascinating pianist, give the illusion that one, with trying, could and should play it yourself; it is within your reach somehow, even if you don't have a piano. Its enormous complexity is lucid and gives the illusion that art is always lucid, and lucidity and beauty are the same.

Kathleen Ferrier: "What is life?" from Orfeo or Die junge Nonne by Schubert

Ferrier's rich, dark, strange, contralto transformed anything she sang, but was particularly suited to Baroque and to German lieder. It was hard to decide between Gluck and Schubert, or any of the tracks on her fabulous CD of Schubert, Brahms and Schumann, though some of the early live recordings could use remastering. Here she is accompanied by Bruno Walter on the piano.

Bob Dylan, absolutely. "Mama, You Been On My Mind."

Or almost any of the songs of this genius and his inimitable, reedy voice. This one fits into my view back on the sixties.